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The Left-Handed Hummingbird was the twenty-first novel in the Virgin New Adventures series. It was written by Kate Orman and was released in 1993. It featured the Seventh Doctor, Ace and Bernice.

Publisher's summary[]

He took up a firing stance, holding the thirty-eight out in front of him. "Mr Lennon?" he said.

Each time, Cristian is there. Each time, he experiences the Blue, a traumatic psychic shock. Only the Doctor can help him – but the Doctor has problems of his own. Following the events of Blood Heat and the Dimension Riders, the Doctor knows that someone or something has been tinkering with time. Now he finds that events in his own past have been altered – and a lethal force from South America's prehistory has been released.

The Doctor, Ace and Bernice travel to the Aztec Empire in 1487, to London in the Swinging Sixties, and to the sinking of the Titanic as they attempt to rectify the temporal faults -- and survive the attacks of the living god Huitzilin.

Chapter titles[]

Prologue - New York City, December 1980

First Slice[]

  1. Mexico (Not Tenochtitlan)
  2. Nine-tenths Below the Surface
  3. Sun King
  4. Pronounced Weet-Zeelo-Potch-Tlee
  5. Into the Fire
  6. Instant Zen

Second Slice[]

  1. And the Smile on the Face of the Tiger
  2. The Cat in the Hat
  3. Number Nine
  4. The Cat in the Hat Comes Back

Third Slice[]

  1. Jingle-Jangle Morning

Interlude 1

  1. You've Got Him Just Where He Wants

Interlude 2

  1. Because He Doesn't Know the Words

Interlude 3

  1. Futility
  2. Epiphany
  3. Tomorrow Never Knows

Plot[]

to be added

Characters[]

Worldbuilding[]

  • The Doctor, Benny and Ace were holidaying in Switzerland in 2030 prior to receiving the message from Christian.
  • The Doctor and companions follow Huitzilin to the Titanic.
  • Huitzilopochtli is pronounced Weet-Zeelo-Potch-Tlee.
  • Benny thinks Darmok is a documentary.

Communications technology[]

Cultural references from the real world[]

The Doctor[]

  • Upon arriving in 1968, the Doctor suggests they visit Woodstock. Two of his earlier incarnations are there.

Drugs and medicines[]

  • The Doctor eats psilocybe mexicana mushrooms, which enhance his telepathic abilities.
  • The Doctor has three lumps of LSD-spiked sugar in 1968.
  • Achtli, a novice priest, dies from taking the magic mushrooms that allow some people to see the Blue.

Fashion and clothing[]

Foods and beverages[]

Individuals[]

  • Ace rescues a slave, Iccauhtli, who was to be sacrificed. He dies after he and Ace get into a fight with some warriors. He drowns in a canal after a warrior splits his rib cage open.
  • Ce Xochitl is a judge and Iccauhtli's father.

Psychic powers[]

  • The Doctor recalls Saul and the natural way the psychic energy pooled to create him.
  • Ace gets hit by a telepathic bomb.

Species[]

Religion[]

  • Achtli is a novice priest and touched by the Blue. He is also Ce Xochitl's son.

TARDIS[]

United Nations Intelligence Taskforce[]

Notes[]

  • Kate Orman was the first, and ultimately the only, woman to write an original full-length novel for either of Virgin's post-series lines; she would write or co-write several more books in the New Adventures series up to 1997.
  • Interlude 3 is written from Bernice's diary.
  • A prelude to this novel was published in DWM 207.
  • Orman had been thinking about the storyline for years, and an early version was published as a short story in the Australian fanzine Pirate Planet. The novel sold enough copies that it was quickly reprinted by Virgin Books. Orman referred to the novel as Hummer.[1]

Continuity[]

External links[]

References[]

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